History Repeats Itself
by ACoolUsername
Summary: From the afterlife, Rhaegar, Lyanna, Robert and Ned watch their children repeat their mistakes. A series of oneshots.


From the afterlife, Rhaegar watches the scene unfolding before him with sadness.

Aegon, his son, is watching Arya Stark, who is the perfect image of Lyanna, beautiful and fierce. His purple eyes have followed her from the moment he saw her, when he arrived in Winterfell. Rhaegar sees it all.

Close by, another man watches Arya Stark as well, a man who is the image of the one who killed Rhaegar. His coal black hair and stormy blue eyes and strong features are immediately recognizable. Lady Arya calls him Gendry.

The spirit of Rhaegar Targaryen senses the presences of Lyanna and Robert behind him. He was thinking of them, and it called them here.

Lyanna is still six and ten, and always will be. She could be Arya's twin. Her sharp gray eyes and wild dark hair are so beautiful as he looks at her.

She gives a start. "Is that- " she is staring at Arya.

"Ned's daughter," Robert says gruffly. He ignores Rhaegar, and Rhaegar ignores him, for they can do nothing else. There is no fighting in the afterlife, and they are already dead.

"She looks so like myself," Lyanna murmurs.

They have not yet noticed what Rhaegar has.

He turns his head to the side, slightly, to address them both.

"And who else do you see there?" He asks quietly. "Who else looks like certain people?"

Lyanna squints and furrows her brow. His heart constricts. Even dead, he still loves her, so much.

Her steely colored eyes widen and she looks afraid.

"I see you," she whispers. "I see Robert."

Robert makes a startled, choked sound as he figures it out.

They all watch with bated breath as Arya rises from her seat and makes her way to the door, only to be stopped by Aegon.

"May I have this dance?" He asks, his brows quirked and lips smiling slyly. Rhaegar frowns. His son is cocky and womanizing.

Arya has the same reaction as Lyanna did when Rhaegar first tried to charm her.

"No." Arya Stark states, glaring at him. But Lyanna doesn't miss the way her cheeks color.

Arya leaves Aegon standing there to greet him, Robert's image. Robert's son. Gendry.

Aegon is staring, and Gendry raises his blue eyes to meet the King's gaze. There is no missing the look of hostility between them.

Rhaegar shudders.

"We cannot let this happen," Lyanna cries. "History cannot repeat itself." She stands alone, shaking. Robert is pale and silent, staring at Gendry and Arya.

"If history wants to repeat itself, there is nothing we can do," Rhaegar says sadly.

Lyanna clenches her fists. "There must be something!" She yells in frustration. "Ned!"

A moment later, Ned Stark is there. He takes in Rhaegar's still, silent presence, Robert's pale and wide eyed one, and Lyanna, shaking and angry. His wife Catelyn joins them.

"What is it, Lya?" Ned says gently.

She points at the scene with a shaking finger. "History repeats itself."

Catelyn gave a cry of surprise at seeing Jon and Sansa. That could be her and Ned!

But Ned isn't looking at Jon and Sansa. He's looking at Arya, and Gendry, and seeing how Aegon watches them.

He speaks gently. "Lya, there's nothing we can do."

Lyanna stomps her feet. "There has to be! We cannot let them make our mistakes! Arya cannot die giving birth to a secret prince who will be raised as a bastard, scorned and mistreated- "

At this, Catelyn flinches.

Ned lets his voice become sharp. "Jon was never mistreated. He had love. He still does."

They all look at Jon Snow then, sitting at the high table next to Sansa, who holds his hand on the table before them. Aegon is now sitting next to Jon, and they are smiling.

Rhaegar thinks, _at least this. At least my sons are not enemies, and might be true brothers._ He can tell from the way Aegon looks Jon in the eyes and smiles that he genuinely wants to know Jon.

Jon looks happy and loved.

Lyanna's lips tremble. "I did not mean it that way." She bites out. "But that is not the matter. What matters is we find a way to keep our children safe from our mistakes."

Ned shakes his head. "I am sorry, Lya. But there is nothing you can do; you know this."

Lyanna's face contorts, and Rhaegar knows she is remembering the time she tried to warn Jon of the daggers in the dark.

In the scene of life they watch, Jon leads Sansa down from the table, both of them smiling. Sansa's hand rests on a slightly protruding belly. Catelyn gasps. Time is different here in the afterlife, and she had no idea.

Cat reaches for Ned's hand, trembling. In life, their two mirror images take to the dance floor. They are so young, and beautiful, and happy. Jon looks like Lyanna, with his thick dark curls and gray eyes, but he has Rhaegar's porcelain skin and fine features and his smile. Sansa is radiant, with her long fiery hair, blue eyes and pale skin.

It is still strange for Ned to see Sansa and Jon together, two children he raised as brother and sister, but at the same time, he is happy for them. He knows what Sansa has been through, his sweet daughter, and he knows Jon. They are perfect together.

He is not surprised to see that Arya is not wed, but he feels anxious at the way Aegon and Gendry watch her.

_Don't let them make our mistakes,_ he thinks.


End file.
